OregonScape

Abstract

oregonscape The earliest logging in the Pacific Northwest took place along streams and rivers, where logs could be rolled or dragged for easy transport down the waterway to a sawmill. By the end of the nineteenth century, streamside areas were becoming logged out and the timber industry was turning to spur railroads to haul logs from more inaccessible interior areas. Building those back-country lines often required crossing rivers, curving around hills, and bridging gullies. One of the techniques used was cribbing, criss-crossing logs cut from nearby trees. This bridge was built for theA.F.Coats Lumber Company in 1924.It was located near Tillamook, where the company operated a sawmill. The bridge was 350 feet long, 110 feet high, and 40 feet wide at the bottom. Nine men built it over a period of two months. At one time, it was claimed to be the world’s largest crib bridge. After three years of use, this bridge was dismantled, and the logs were sent to a mill, resulting in 750,000 feet of salvaged fir and hemlock lumber. Logging companies did not salvage many smaller crib bridges and trestles,leaving them to rot in the forest when they were no longer needed. On top of the bridge, to the left, is a donkey engine mounted on a sled and riding on top of a railcar chassis. Donkey engines, invented in 1881, replaced oxen for dragging logs to a place where they could be loaded for transport to the mill. On the other side of the bridge, back-to-back, are two Climax Class C locomotives, built especially for the logging industry. Such engines were used for both transporting logs to the mill and bringing equipment to where it was needed in the forest. —Mikki Tint, former special collections librarian, OHS Research Library OHS digital no. bb007541 ...